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Australian actor Peter Sumner, who portrayed Death Star security officer Lt. Pol Treidum in the original 1977 “Star Wars” film, died after battling a long illness, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. He was 74.

Sumner was best known for his scene in “A New Hope” when he notices two stormtroopers (Han Solo and Luke Skywalker) out of their assigned stations and says, “TK-421, why aren’t you at your post? TK-421, do you copy?” Later, he’s seen being taken out by Chewbacca.

According to the Herald, the actor was traveling in England with his family when “Star Wars” was being cast. He earned £60 a day for two days’ work on the film and forever cherished the experience. He was a regular at fan conventions and replied to fan letters over the years. He later reprised his role of Treidum in the 1999 “Star Wars” fan film “The Dark Redemption.”

Read More: ‘Game of Thrones...

The Star Wars franchise is in mourning, as a beloved cast member passed away earlier today. Peter Sumner, who played Lt. Pol Treidum in the 1977 classic Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, died at the age of 74. The actor passed after suffering from an illness for quite some time, but it wasn't disclosed what that illness was.

Syndey Morning Herald reports that Peter Sumner was the only Australian actor hired to work on George Lucas' first Star Wars movie. The actor was paid just 60 British pounds a day, for two days of work on the sci-fi classic. His character Lt. Pol Treidum notices that two Stormtroopers aren't at their post, leading to his now-iconic line "Tk-421, why aren't you at your post? Tk-421, do you copy?" While he only uttered that one line, and had a scene where he's punched by Chewbacca, the actor became a beloved part of Star Wars lore,...

With the massive success of Carrie (1976), telekinesis was quickly added to horror filmmakers’ arsenal as a new weapon to terrify audiences. The immense power of the film left some reticent to tackle the subject for fear of falling short; however Brian DePalma stepped up to the plate with The Fury (1978), and that same year fledgling Australian filmmaker Richard Franklin made Patrick, a suspenseful, darkly humorous tale of a nurse and the psychokinetically disposed comatose patient that loves her.

Released on its native soil October 1st, 1978, Patrick was bought up for distribution by over 30 countries after a successful screening at the Cannes Film Festival, easily earning back its $400,000 Aud budget (half of which was chipped in by the Australian Film Commission). More good news followed as Patrick was well received by critics, and rightly so – it’s a tense little beaut with an emphasis on character and scattered shocks throughout.

The...

Cocksucker Blues

USA, 1972

Directed by Robert Frank

Rock critics, like film critics, abhor a narrative vacuum. Blues begets R&B begets rock n’ roll, which begets the British Invasion, and from there, it’s a multi-pronged evolution into hard rock, glam, punk, and onwards into a million sundry subgenres. Each generation repels against their forbears and creates a new antithesis. The promising rise and the disastrous fall of whoever, precipitating the ascension of the next comers. The straight narrative throughline, complete with its obvious conclusions and waves of comforting familiarity, is the ultimate rock journalist catnip. It’s no surprise, then, that rock movies, whether narrative or documentary, straight or parodic, epic or intimate, tend towards the creation and upholding of rock and roll logic and mythos. Hell, Cameron Crowe made both a life and (most of) a career out of finding a place for himself in that mustiest of Rock Myth chronicles,...

Musicians are often seen as poor actors and there are many examples of why this theory has come into effect. One only has to see Mick Jagger in Ned Kelly to realise that what they give a film in star power they often manage to lose it in competence and believability. However, there are some diamonds in the this vast amount of rough- some musicians who have managed to pull off some very good performances that have shocked both critics and audiences alike. These show that there are some musicians who can actually make the leap from the album studio to the movie studio.

Just to be clear this list is done with people that identify mostly as musicians. Therefore Hugh Laurie and Robert Downey Jr do not count as they are actors first and foremost (as good as their albums are).

N.B. This list will no doubt be...

Being a musician and being an actor can have more similarities than one might imagine. In the case of some of these artists, their stage presence and public personas take much of the same gravitas and attention as committing oneself to a scripted part.

Some musicians seem to dip their toes into the rushing streams of cinema in an attempt to capture that parallel challenge. Sinking into the part of a character onscreen has to be nothing but helpful for the artistic minded and performance inclined.

Others seem to be drawn by specific projects, or film directors have sought them out specifically and cleverly because of their well-known persona.

I need to set out some ground rules for how this list is constructed. There are plenty of artists out there that could qualify for discussion of some form of multi-faceted career. However, the people featured here fall under some specific...

Sir Mick Jagger's love letters have sold at auction for £187,250. The 10 handwritten notes had been expected to fetch between £70,000 and £100,000 when they were sold in London on Wednesday (12.12.12) but auctioneers Sotheby's said a private collector bidding by phone wanted to pay the high price. The letters were written by the 69-year-old rocker in 1969 from the Australian set of his movie 'Ned Kelly' and were sent to his former girlfriend Marsha Hunt, the mother of his first child Karis and inspiration behind The Rolling Stones' hit single 'Brown Sugar'. Marsha, 66, has previously revealed the correspondence chronicles their 'delicate love affair' and they discuss topical subjects of the moment like the first moon landing and...

Sir Mick Jagger's love letters have sold at auction for £187,250. The 10 handwritten notes had been expected to fetch between £70,000 and £100,000 when they were sold in London on Wednesday (12.12.12) but auctioneers Sotheby's said a private collector bidding by phone wanted to pay the high price. The letters were written by the 69-year-old rocker in 1969 from the Australian set of his movie 'Ned Kelly' and were sent to his former girlfriend Marsha Hunt, the mother of his first child Karis and inspiration behind The Rolling Stones' hit single 'Brown Sugar'. Marsha, 66, has previously revealed the correspondence chronicles their...

London -- Jumpin' Jack Flash! A batch of love letters written by Mick Jagger to a 1960s muse have sold at auction for 187,250 pounds ($301,472).

Sotheby's says a private collector bidding by phone on Wednesday snapped up the Rolling Stones frontman's 10 letters to singer Marsha Hunt.

Hunt is an American-born singer who was the inspiration for the Stones' 1971 hit "Brown Sugar" and bore Jagger's first child.

The letters, touching on everything from the moon landing to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, were written in 1969 from the Australian set of Jagger's film "Ned Kelly."

They had been expected to fetch between 70,000 pounds and 100,000 pounds ($113,000 and $161,000).

Sotheby's books specialist Gabriel Heaton said the letters reveal "a poetic and self-aware 25-year-old with wide-ranging intellectual and artistic interests."

Look: A close-up of Mick Jagger's signature...

Sir Mick Jagger's love letters are being put up for auction. The Rolling Stones rocker penned a series of 10 letters in 1969 to his former flame, American singer Marsha Hunt - who inspired the band's hit 'Brown Sugar' and bore his first child - which will be auctioned off at Sotheby's in London this December. Marsha said in a statement: 'When a serious historian finally examines how and why Britain's boy bands affected international culture and politics, this well-preserved collection of Mick Jagger's hand written letters will be a revelation.' Marsha, 66, has revealed the correspondence chronicles their 'delicate love affair' and says the letters were written from the set of Mick's film 'Ned Kelly' in Australia. They...

Marsha Hunt is a onetime singer, Hair star, and current Jimi Hendrix biographer, but she's best known for her months-long affair with Mick Jagger, a relationship that inspired "Brown Sugar" and resulted in now 42-year-old Karis Jagger Hunt. In return, Jagger wrote Hunt 10 love letters from the set of his 1970 film Ned Kelly, which include reflections on Yoko Ono and John Lennon, as well as song lyrics. Apparently, Hunt isn't too sentimental about the notes, as she's set to sell them at a Sotheby's auction in London next month. They're expected to fetch up to $110,000, so anyone interested on Mick's take on whether Yoko really destroyed his competition should start counting that couch change now. ...

London -- Handwritten letters from Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to his former lover Marsha Hunt will be auctioned in London next month.

Hunt is an American-born singer who was the inspiration for the Stones' 1971 hit "Brown Sugar" and bore Jagger's first child.

Sotheby's said Saturday that Hunt has tasked the auction house with selling 10 letters written from the set of Jagger's film "Ned Kelly," which was shooting in Australia.

Hunt said the letters chronicling their "delicate love affair" and secret history touch on subjects such as the first moon landing and John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

"When a serious historian finally examines how and why Britain's boy bands affected international culture and politics, this well-preserved collection of Mick Jagger's hand written letters will be a revelation," she said in a statement distributed by the auction house.

Sotheby's books specialist Gabriel Heaton said the letters sent in the summer...

Big news came out of 30 Rock today as NBC confirmed that Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger would host as well as perform as the musical guest on the May 19 season finale of Saturday Night Live (SNL). According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jagger last appeared on SNL in December 2011 in a skit with guest host Jimmy Fallon but never hosted the show before. Jagger did appear as a musical guest two other times. In addition to his work with the legendary Rolling Stones, celebrating their 50th anniversary as a band this year, Jagger acted in numerous movies going back to Ned Kelly and Performance in 1970.

Big news came out of 30 Rock today as NBC confirmed that Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger would host as well as perform as the musical guest on the May 19 season finale of Saturday Night Live (SNL). According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jagger last appeared on SNL in December 2011 in a skit with guest host Jimmy Fallon but never hosted the show before. Jagger did appear as a musical guest two other times. In addition to his work with the legendary Rolling Stones, celebrating their 50th anniversary as a band this year, Jagger acted in numerous movies going back to Ned Kelly and Performance in 1970.

London — Photographer Robert Whitaker, who shot some of the most famous – and infamous – images of The Beatles, has died at the age of 71.

Whitaker's friend, photo archivist Dave Brolan, said he died of cancer Sept. 20 in Sussex, southern England.

Whitaker took scores of well-known pictures of The Beatles, including the controversial "butcher" cover of the 1966 American album "Yesterday and Today."

The image of the Fab Four in white coats surrounded by decapitated dolls and slabs of raw meat proved too strong for record company Capitol, which ordered the cover withdrawn soon after the album's release.

The record was rereleased with an inoffensive picture of the band sitting on a steamer trunk. Originals are coveted by collectors and can sell for thousands of dollars.

Whitaker – a fan of surrealism – later said the image was a meditation on fame and an attempt to shake up the band's image, inspired by a dream...

The Rolling Stone will reportedly star in and produce new movie Tabloid, which is to be scripted by Josh Olson

Mick Jagger is set for his first acting role since 2001's little-seen The Man from Elysian Fields, playing a Murdoch-esque international media mogul in a new film called Tabloid, according to Deadline.

Jagger will serve as producer on the new project, which apparently is derived from his original idea. It is being made through his company Jagged Films, and A History of Violence writer Josh Olson has been hired to script it.

Jagger has dabbled in movie production over the years, receiving producer credits on the 2008 all-star comedy The Women and 2001 wartime drama Enigma, as well as Shine a Light, the Rolling Stones documentary directed by Martin Scorsese. He has nursed acting ambitions for much longer, making both Ned Kelly and Performance in 1970.

Mick JaggerThe Rolling StonesAndrew Pulver

guardian.co.

"Stand and deliver, sir!" Dennis Hopper in Philippe Mora's Mad Dog Morgan.

Philippe Mora: Ballad Of A Mad Dog

By

Alex Simon

Born in Paris in 1949, Philippe Mora is a member of one of Australia’s best known artistic families. His parents, Georges Mora and Mirka Mora, migrated to Australia from France in 1951 and settled in Melbourne, where they quickly became key figures on the Melbourne cultural scene. Georges, a wartime resistance fighter, became an influential art dealer, and in 1967 he founded one of the first commercial art galleries in Melbourne, Tolarno Galleries. The Mora family home and restaurants were focal points of Melbourne's bohemian subculture. As a result of this, Philippe and his brothers had what he has described as a "culturally privileged childhood."

Philippe moved to London in late 1967 to pursue painting and filmmaking. He was one of many important Australian artists, writers and others who...